Key Actors of the Nigerian Broadband Revolution (Part I)
Nigeria’s quest to provide access to broadband for her over 170 million people, a mission coming on the heels of the towering success achieved in mobile phone penetration, requires the support and strength of partners in technology and expertise. And in this, a global player, like Ceragon Networks, operating in Nigeria, stands to be of immense benefit to the country.
Indeed, the presence of the world’s number one wireless backhaul specialist, Ceragon Networks, in Nigeria is obviously a big plus for the country in her connectivity pursuit. Here is a company with over 65 years of proven field experience in ensuring that mobile and fixed-line carriers, as well as private network operators, have the cost-effective transmission capacity to deliver reliable voice and premium data services.
Certainly, it is not a mere coincidence that many operators in the Nigerian telecom industry are relying on Ceragon’s solutions for effective and efficient service delivery, especially with the new additional licences of LTE/4G on 700MHz and 800MHz issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC), recently. As at the last count, Ceragon has provided thousands of links to leading Nigerian operators, using its FibeAir IP-10 and FibeAir IP-20 platforms, as well as its long-haul Evolution Long-Haul solution. To date, Ceragon has provided up to16 x STM-1 (2.5Gbps) capacity to over 60 million subscribers, to distances as long as over 8,000 kilometres.
In Ceragon’s philosophy, everybody in today’s interconnected world needs network capacity to provide the latest services, expand into new markets and to meet the growing communication demands of people and devices. Ceragon’s solutions are designed to eliminate bottlenecks with cost-effective, high-capacity and future-proof backhaul connectivity while boosting network performance and services.
And that is why operators that deploy Ceragon Networks solutions are further embracing it as it lowers the cost of ownership, shorten time to deployment and delivers the highest and most reliable radio capacity for any network. Agile and responsive, Ceragon addresses the constantly evolving needs of today’s networks so that operators can fully leverage new marketing and technology opportunities without business interruption.
Commitment to Nigeria
Interestingly, Ceragon Networks continues to demonstrate serious commitment to the broadband quest in Nigeria and is ever ready to assist operators with any networking solutions they may need. It was partly in demonstration of its commitment to the country and its over 170 million people that the company in 2011 opened an expansive office in Lagos to serve as a servicing hub for its West Africa operations.
The multi-million dollar office complements the office which the company operated before, where it nursed the staff strength from a paltry three to over 40 within a few months. Expressing the optimism of investing in the Nigerian market, at the opening of the new office, Mr. Ira Palti, Ceragon’s President and CEO, had emphasised the great value the company has for the Nigerian market, promising that the company would lead innovations that would advance the country’s already exciting technological developments in Africa. Palti also said that the objective of Ceragon in Nigeria was to ensure that operators in the ICT sector have the ability to provide services that would grow information technology market and encourage growth, in addition to giving the end-users desired reliable services.
Operators’ Testimonies
One of the big players in the Nigerian telecom industry that have testified to the efficiency of Cergon’s solutions is a leading Internet service provider in the country, Direct-On-PC (DOPC). DOPC in 2010 chose Ceragon’s wireless backhaul solutions to expand its WiMAX-based “Unwired” Mobile 4G Broadband Services network.
“Ceragon has helped us bring all the benefits of the digital age to Nigeria,” said Mr. Mahesh Sadhwani, DOPC Vice Chairman.
Ceragon was also contracted to manage the deployment of Globacom’s FibeAir IP-10 and Evolution IP Long-Haul systems throughout Nigeria, expanding upon the original network Ceragon developed for Glo in 2010. And in a glowing tribute showing maximum satisfaction with Ceragon’s solutions, Mr Mike Jituboh, Executive Director of Special Projects at Globacom, had said:
“Ceragon has always provided us with the optimum mix of great solutions, superior professional services and fast time to market. When selecting a vendor for this expanded network coverage, it was a natural choice for us to continue working closely with Ceragon. We look forward to an ongoing successful relationship as we continue our network expansion throughout Africa.”
Contributions to Broadband in Nigeria
Ceragon Networks’s contributions to the Broadband agenda in Nigeria cannot be overemphasised as it provides the operators with the right solutions to deliver data services efficiently and also at affordable cost. Through implementation of Ceragon solutions, operators have been able to successfully improve operational efficiency and ensure the highest level of customer experience while addressing the broadband issues common to the region.
These include: Substantially increasing spectrum efficiency; Maintaining quality of service despite the traffic bursts common to 4G LTE networks, via ultra-deep TCP buffers; Saving at least 35% in wireless backhaul power expenses, which can comprise about one-third of mobile operator’s total OPEX, most deriving from cell site power consumption, as well as remote-site generator use. Ceragon’s smart-energy mode adjusts the actual energy consumption to the needed radio transmit power, no more, no less.
With Ceragon FibeAir IP-20C available in Nigeria, operators are now able to overcome the traditional capacity barriers. It is seen as the only microwave radio to offer a virtual fibre solution in licensed bands. FibeAir IP-20C features a breakthrough multi-level technology that employs a parallel radio for efficient processing engine to double the link performance. This allows FibeAir IP-20C to deliver multi-GPS capacity on a single frequency channel – setting a new standards for efficient spectrum usage and significantly improving operators’ total cost of ownership (TCO). By employing line-of-sight (LoS) 4×4 MIMO, operators can even reach capacities that quadruple those existing solutions, at half the form-factor.
Ceragon’s FibeAir IP-20C boosts spectral efficiency to meet the increasingly demanding capacity requirements of advanced HetNet backhaul and fronthaul scenarios. Built around Ceragon’s one baseband modem and RFIC technologies, it is the next leap in Ceragon’s Holistic HetNet Hauling (3H) vision which redefines wireless connectivity in heterogeneous networks.
Deepening Broadband in Nigeria
To deepen broadband in Nigeria, Ceragon Networks, aside providing the required solutions also has words of encourage and advice for the government. Highlighting the importance of broadband and the need for government to do the right thing in frequency management, Ira Palti, president and CEO of Ceragon, noted that:
“Broadband presents an exceptional opportunity for Nigerian mobile operators to provide rich, multimedia content to subscribers. It does, however require extending the reach and capacity of broadband services by regulating additional frequency bands.
“And once the government takes this action, Ceragon is ready. Our FibeAir IP-20 solutions provide cost-effective, ultra-high capacity for small-cell aggregation and macro-site interconnection at a fraction of the cost of buried fibre alternatives. Future-proof, this solution scales with mobile operators’ needs, as capacity grows,” he said.